If the Kirrins and the ManneringTrents went on dates
by WorldofBlytonBlog
Summary: Sketches of dates between Julian Kirrin and Lucy-Ann Trent, George Kirrin and Jack Trent, Dick Kirrin and Dinah Mannering and Anne Kirrin and Philip Mannering. Short humourous and sometimes romantic snap shots into their first dates.
1. Chapter 1

**If the Kirrins and the Mannering/Trents went on dates.**

Authors Note: Here I've paired up the (human) members of the Famous Five and the Adventure Series in a vaguely romantic way. Each 'story' is just a short scene centered around their first dates, and will hopefully capture their personalities. The other thing I should explain is that these don't all occur in the same "universe" or "timeline", they are all completely stand-alone stories which don't influence or relate to each other in any way.

**Anne/Philip**

"I had a lovely time this evening Philip" said Anne, standing on the doorstep of the flat she shared with a friend. "I'd invite you in but Jenny's probably studying in the living room right now."

"That's okay" replied Philip, "I had a great time too. Maybe we can do it again soon?"

"I'd really like that" said Anne as Philip leaned towards her for a goodnight kiss. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Anne spotted something moving on Philip's collar.

"Goodness gracious Philip, what IS that!?" shrieked Anne, pressing herself back against the door. "Ugh, it's an earwig! Where did it come from?"

"Er, out of my shirt" said Philip in embarrassment.

"You know what, I think I might just be busy for the next… ever" said Anne weakly as she opened the door as little as possible to slip in to the safety of her flat.

"Drat" said Philip to himself as he shooed the earwig back into his collar. "I really thought I'd gotten them all out this time".

**Dick/Dinah**

Dick broke into a jog down the street as he heard the church bell chime. He was fifteen minutes late to meet Dinah and he really didn't want to put her into one of her moods at the start of their first proper date. As he rounded the corner he caught sight of Dinah standing at their agreed meeting place. She wasn't alone, though. Standing face to face with her, mirroring her angry pose, was his cousin George.

Dick slowed his pace, and finally stopped across the road from the girls. They were far too engrossed in their argument to notice him, and he took a moment to look at them both. He caught a few words of their row, "rude", "fathead" and "only a dog", between the cars and buses passing along the road, and was struck at just how similar the two girls were. Both so proud, defiant and stubborn, with dark unruly hair and sun-tanned skin.

Taking advantage in a momentary lull in the traffic Dick crossed the road and finally caught the attention of the two girls. "What's up?" he dared to ask and his ears were immediately assaulted by both girls yelling about the other. His mind sorted out some phrases from the din, "your silly girlfriend", "your fatheaded cousin", "poor Timmy" before holding his hands up in surrender.

"Well," demanded George and Dinah in tandem, all the while glaring daggers at each other, "what are you going to do about _her?_"

"I… er… um" said Dick, helplessly. The two girls gave him a disgusted look and stomped off, thankfully in different directions.

He had the sinking feeling that he was going to have to make it up to both of them, somehow.

**Julian/Lucy-Ann**

…"and then the police took the two of them away. I hope they were locked up for a long time." Julian finished the story of one of his adventures and smiled at the slender red-head sat beside him on the bench.

"I hope so too" said Lucy-Ann. "I can't bear to think people like that might get away with it. I've come across some nasty people on adventures too, you know."

"You've had adventures?" asked Julian, "what kind?"

"Oh, the usual" answered Lucy-Ann with a small smile, "hunting for treasure in an inescapable valley, uncovering money forgers, nearly being thrown off a mountain…"

Julian looked at her in surprise. "Forgive me for saying this, but you don't strike me as such an adventurous person."

"I'm not" was Lucy-Ann's reply. "I find them positively frightening but I can't seem to help myself from falling into them, especially when I'm with my brothers and sister.

"Ah," said Julian, "I know what that's like. Falling into adventures, that is, not being scared of them."

Lucy-Ann laughed at that. "Of course," she agreed.

"But don't worry," said Julian, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer. "If an adventure sneaks up on us I'll keep you safe."

**George/Jack**

George closed the front door to Kirrin cottage with a sigh.

"Oh, George, dear. You're home," said her mother. "Good, I can get to bed now."

"You know you don't have to stay up and wait for me Mother," said George reprovingly.

"I know dear, but it's hard to sleep when I know you're still out," replied her mother, "not because I was worried about you, of course, I know you can look after yourself. I just like to hear how your dates have gone, that's all," she amended quickly with a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh, yes. Well, it didn't go very well tonight, as a matter of fact," said George. "All he wanted to talk about was his parrot. She sounds like an amusing bird, but after three hours I was quite fed up. I could hardly get a word in edgewise about Timmy…"

_Meanwhile_

Jack hung up his jacket and kicked off his shoes before opening the living-room door. Immediately Kiki flew to his shoulder shouting "Jack! Jack!"

"Hallo, mate" said Philip from his armchair by the fire. "How was the date tonight?"

"Date. Mate. Date. Mate," began Kiki before Jack shushed her.

"That's quite enough rhyming old thing," he said. "The date…well… it wasn't great," he continued.

"Mate. Date. GREAT!" Kiki bellowed in Jack's ear.

"Kiki!" he said sternly, "stop that," and tapped her smartly on the beak. Kiki put her head under her wing and sulked.

Philip smiled at Kiki's antics before returning to the more important subject. "What went wrong?"

"Well, all she wanted to talk about was her dog. He sounds like a clever thing, but after three hours I was quite fed up. I could hardly get a word in edgewise about Kiki…"


	2. Chapter 2

Dick/Lucy-Ann

"This is a lovely place, Dick" said Lucy-Ann, "I've never walked through here before."

"I discovered it quite by accident, actually," replied Dick, "but it is lovely. I like to come from a wander when I can."

They walked in comfortable silence for a while, each sneaking glances at the other and smiling at each other when they made eye contact. Then Lucy-Ann stopped suddenly and frowned.

"What's up?" asked Dick, feeling slightly worried. The date had being going well, hadn't it?

"I thought I heard something. Yes, there it is again."

Dick listened carefully. "Oh, yes. There must be a cat nearby."

They carried on walking for a short time, the sound of the cat becoming louder and more plaintive as they went.

"There!" cried Lucy-Anne who had been anxiously scanning the trees for the animal, "it's up that tree. It must be stuck!"

Dick shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other as Lucy-Ann looked beseechingly at him. "Cats are almost never stuck. Every time someone goes up to rescue one, the cat jumps down on its own!"

"Pooh," said Lucy-Ann, "we can't leave the poor thing stuck there. It's obviously distressed!"

With that, she moved closer to the tree to try and coax the animal down to a lower branch. Unfortunately, she was not looking where she was putting her feet, and stepped into a rabbit hole. With a sudden cry, she stumbled sideways.

Dick fairly leapt forward to steady her.

"Are you OK?" he asked.

"I think so," replied Lucy-Ann with a watery smile. "I've twisted my ankle slightly, though."

"I think we'd better get you home then," said Dick.

"But what about the cat?" said Lucy-Ann.

Dick sighed. He helped Lucy-Ann to sit on a tree stump and eyed the tree critically. Grabbing a shoulder-height branch he hoisted himself up into the tree. Standing up, he put out his arms to lift the cat down. The cat turned its back on Dick, flicked its tail, and quickly made its way to a broken branch trailing almost to the ground on the other side of the tree. With total ease, the cat walked down the branch, jumped lightly to the ground and sauntered off through the trees.

"Right then," said Dick. "That's that done then."

Lucy-Ann stifled a laugh. "Sorry, Dick. You did very well. I guess the cat wasn't stuck after all."

"No, but you look like you might need a bit of rescuing," replied Dick, dropping down from the tree.

"I know just the chap for the job," said Lucy-Ann looking up at him.

George/Philip

Before Philip could step forward to open the restaurant door, George grabbed the handle and held it open for him.

"Er, thanks" he muttered. "Reservations for two, under Mannering?" he said to the waitress standing at the podium.

Philip and George followed the waitress to a quiet corner table, where George's glare sent Philip quickly to his own seat without helping George into hers. The waitress pretended not to notice before handing out menus and informing them of the specials.

"You really don't let men do anything for you, do you?" Philip asked George as he read the menu.

"I don't need men to do anything for me," replied George. "I'm as good as a man any day."

Deciding not to push the issue, Philip steered the conversation to less controversial topics, and soon had George laughing about some of the things he and Jack had got up to at school. George had some fairly amusing anecdotes herself, and any awkwardness has disappeared before the main course arrived.

As they left the restaurant, utterly stuffed after three courses, Philip reached out to take George's elbow on the stairs. George immediately pulled her arm away starting to say "I don't need…" before breaking off and grimacing as her foot landed in something warm and squishy on the next step.

"I know," smiled Philip. "It's just I noticed the spilt take-away food there and thought you'd rather not stand in it. But I guess if you're 'as good as a man', you don't mind."

"No." sniffed George. "It's not a problem" she said, discreetly trying to scrape congealing gravy off the side of her shoe.

**Julian/Dinah**

"George's boat is being painted, but I know how much you wanted to see Kirrin Island," said Julian, "so I thought we'd take the under-sea tunnel, if that's OK with you?"

"Of course," replied Dinah. "I'm quite used to secret tunnels and passages. Do you have torches?"

"I do."

"What are we waiting for then?"

Julian led the way to the old quarry and admired the way Dinah fearlessly scrambled down the steep sides. "Uncle Quentin had a steel door put over the tunnel entrance, to keep out trouble-makers," he explained to Dinah. "I've got the key here, though."

Julian opened the low door which squealed in protest. "I'll go first," he said before handing Dinah a torch and crawling in to the tunnel.

Dinah easily kept up with Julian through the long sea-tunnel, and seemed unperturbed by the booming sea above. On the island Julian showed her the wreck, the ruins and the cave. They sat dipping their feet in the rock-pools outside the cave, and Julian picked up a starfish to show Dinah. Dinah wrinkled up her nose when he offered it to her to hold.

Eventually the light grew dimmer and the evening turned chilly. The two headed back into the dungeons to walk back through the tunnels. Julian was just thinking how nice it was to date a girl who wasn't afraid of dark tunnels and 'creepy' wrecks when Dinah stopped abruptly.

"What was that?" she asked, her voice sounding slightly unsteady.

Julian listened carefully, and identified the source of the scrabbling and squeaking.

"Oh, there are probably a few rats in these tunnels," he said airily. "But don't worry, they're more afraid of you, than you are of-"

He didn't finish his sentence before Dinah shrieked and ran off down the tunnel. "Hie, Dinah, wait!" he called. When she didn't stop he started jogging after her. Quickly he realised she'd taken a wrong turn and he stopped. Shouting after her again, he realised he could barely hear her footsteps.

Retracing his steps, he raced down the right tunnels and back to Kirrin Cottage. Luckily George and Timmy were there, and after panting out his story, they accompanied him back to the tunnels. Timmy quickly found Dinah, and led everyone safely out to the quarry.

George didn't say anything to Dinah, just gave Julian a look and took Timmy home.

"I guess I should have told you I was a bit afraid of some animals," said Dinah, not meeting Julian's eyes.

"Well, I suppose you can't be brave about everything," he replied, giving her a hug.

Anne/Jack

"This is the life," said Jack contentedly, sitting back in his chair.

"Mmmmmmm" Kiki agreed, diving into the marmalade on the sideboard for another beak-full.

"You'd better not let Anne catch you doing that, old thing. She made that marmalade herself."

"Mmmmmmm" Kiki said again, flapping over to Jack's shoulder as the kitchen door opened.

"It's apple-pie for afters" said Anne, eyeing Kiki's sticky beak suspiciously. "I hope that's OK."

"Definitely," said Jack.

"Definitely," repeated Kiki.

"I've brought some for Kiki too," said Anne, producing a small plate with a small slice on it.

"Mmmmmmm" said Kiki.

After dessert, Jack took the dishes through to the kitchen. When he returned Anne led him through to the lounge, leaving Kiki in the dining-room. They spent a pleasant hour chatting before Jack suddenly wondered about Kiki.

He went into the dining-room, but couldn't see her anywhere. The door to the kitchen was open, however.

"Anne," called Jack. "I'm ever so sorry, but I think Kiki got into the pantry."

"Oh that's OK," replied Anne. "She can't have done much harm."

"Are you kidding?" said Jack, "She'll have eaten everything she could get her greedy beak on!"

Anne just smiled, and opened the pantry door.

Kiki flew to Jack's shoulder, and Jack peered into the almost empty pantry, looking more and more confused as his eyes scanned the shelves.

"Mother emptied out the pantry yesterday to have new shelves fitted," explained Anne. "We used up what we could, the rest is in a kitchen cupboard… all that I put in there was a small dish of marmalade and one of sunflower seeds…"

"God save Anne," said Kiki, and cackled.


End file.
